There are many guides for academic administrators that explore differing philosophies of administration, theoretical approaches to management and leadership, and new trends in higher education administration. Books such as these can inspire department chairs to develop a major new vision for their discipline or even their entire institution. But in order to make that vision a reality, chairs must know how to excel at the many administrative tasks assigned to them. For instance, how do you cultivate a potential donor for much-needed departmental resources? How do you interview someone when your dean assigns you to a committee searching for an administrator in a different academic area? How do you fire someone? How do you get your department members to work together more harmoniously? How do you keep the people who report to you motivated and capable of seeing the big picture? This book is about the “how” of academic administration. Based on a series of workshops given by the author in the area of faculty and administrative development, each topic deals concisely with the most important information chairs will want to have at their fingertips when faced with a particular challenge or opportunity. Intended to be a ready reference that chairs turn to as needed, this book emphasizes proven solutions over untested theories and stresses what chairs need to know now in order to be most successful in their administrative positions.